Which school is next?

Have you read the Gates grants awarded to PPS for transforming the district's high schools? You might want to get informed about what Bill, Vicki, and their friends at the Portland Schools Foundation have planned for Portland's public schools. The Gates grant application submitted by PPS and the Portland Schools Foundation in Fall 2005 indicates that PPS plans to actively support a wide array of partner-operated (charter) schools and school leadership models within the district, such as community governance models.

Watch what's happening at the pilot school (Jefferson) to understand what might be spreading to other schools.

In 2006, Portland Schools Foundation (PSF) board member Tony Hopson was appointed (by Vicki Phillips) to serve on the Jefferson design team but neithor one of them informed the Design Team or the Jefferson school community that Mr. Hopson had been awarded a grant (by PSF) for a Jefferson community governance project, or that PPS and PSF had been awarded a grant from the Gates Foundation to support dividing Jefferson into a campus of small vertical schools, and creating alternative school leadership models within PPS.

Read statement by Glenda Walker, Jefferson PTSA President at the school board meeting on 1/23/06 prior to the vote on the Jefferson reconfiguration proposal for some background:
http://www.neighborhoodschoolsalliance.org/node/28

Here's some additional information about the Gates grant application, Jefferson redesign process, etc:
http://www.neighborhoodschoolsalliance.org/node/344

Below is an article by Scott Learn (The Oregonian, 5/15/07) about a proposed "Jefferson Community Advocacy Board." Here are links to the JCAB agreement, signed by PPS leaders and Tony Hopson, that is posted on the Oregonian's webiste, http://www.oregonlive.com/cgi-bin/prxy/accessor/nph-repository-cache.cgi...
AND a letter to Superintendent Phillips from the Jefferson PTSA president, dated 5/9/07, raising concern about the agreement,
http://www.oregonlive.com/cgi-bin/prxy/accessor/nph-repository-cache.cgi...

Jefferson activist accused of conflict
Schools - SEI's leader says concerns about a new advocacy panel and his role are unfounded
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
SCOTT LEARN
The Oregonian

The head of Jefferson High's main parent group is accusing longtime school activist Tony Hopson of a "blatant conflict of interest" in guiding the formation of an advocacy board for the school that would have a say in principal hiring and some spending decisions.

Glenda Walker, president of Jefferson's Parent Teacher Student Association, wrote to Superintendent Vicki Phillips last week questioning an agreement for a new 17-member community advocacy board at Jefferson. Phillips, Hopson and Cynthia Harris, Jefferson's interim principal, signed the deal May 3.

Hopson and Self Enhancement Inc., the nonprofit he leads, will control the composition of the advocacy board, which was formed with little public input, Walker said.

The agreement gives the board a say in spending money it raises, spending federal anti-poverty money and hiring a new principal. Principal Leon Dudley is on leave through the end of the school year, and it's not clear whether he will return.

"I'm sure Mr. Hopson has great ideas, but there's no democracy there, there's no open communication or an open agreement," Walker said in an interview. "It gives him a controlling hand."

Hopson, like Walker a Jefferson graduate, said he has no interest in taking over the 566-student school, which has the lowest enrollment of Portland's high schools. The advocacy board will include a half-dozen parents and representatives from the PTSA and the school's site council, he noted.

Louder community voice

Hopson said the new board will broaden the narrow community base now involved with Jefferson, helping the North Portland school to raise money and build political clout. Members of the committee and contributors will want to know they have some say in the direction of the school, which has seen decades of reform efforts, he said.

"We've seen teachers and principals and superintendents come and go. At some point, the community needs to take ownership over what happens," Hopson said.

The dispute highlights the divisions and power politics that swirl around Jefferson, Oregon's only majority African American high school. A small circle of active critics, including Walker, is suspicious of district initiatives and of Hopson, who has been involved with Jefferson for years.

Hopson has spent decades advocating for better education for African American students and other nonwhite students. But his high profile also draws heavy scrutiny.

The move to create a new "community governing body" at Jefferson started in late 2004, when Hopson and SEI got a $35,000 grant from the Portland Schools Foundation to convene a "core group" to form the new body. Hopson is a member of the foundation's board.

The grant application said the governing body would have "full responsibility and authority for running Jefferson High School: for curriculum, hiring, school improvement plans, and overall direction of the school."

But that authority is scaled back in the new agreement. Besides money it raises, the new advocacy board would work with the Jefferson principal to "make recommendations on the assignment of unspecified Title 1 dollars and unrestricted grant funds," the new agreement says. The agreement does not include the site council and PTSA in those deliberations.

The board would work with the site council, PTSA and others to "have a strong voice on the selection of future principals," the agreement says, including "active participation in the selection process."

Critics question intentions

Walker and other critics are suspicious of the new group and of Hopson's intentions. The 23-member core group that formed the advocacy board held closed and unevenly attended meetings and did not include the school's site council, Walker said. The board will be appointed by a seven-member team that includes the principal and district area director and three members of Hopson's core team, Walker noted, allowing Hopson significant control.

Hopson's involvement with charter schools adds to critics' suspicions. SEI started a middle school charter in 2004, and Hopson was reported as being a member of a group that also wanted to convert Jefferson High into a charter school. One member of that group, Alvin Manus, was on the core group that drafted the advocacy board proposal.

Hopson said he backed charter supporters' rights to pursue a charter but, contrary to news at the time, was not part of the group.

Today, he said, he's busy managing SEI. "I've got my hands full," he said. "Jeff is the last thing I want to have."

Walker's letter asks Phillips to rescind the new agreement. But Portland Public Schools spokesman Matt Shelby said the advocacy board will go forward and does not need school board approval.

Andy Kulak, an eight-year Jefferson teacher who was on the core group, said the advocacy board could bring Jefferson's factions together to foster long-term stability at the school.

Harris, Jefferson's interim principal, said she hopes the board can also raise millions for the school, which has no foundation. The board's work will add to the site council and PTSA, she said, not supplant it.

"That's how I'm seeing it," Harris said, "unless I'm totally missing something."

Scott Learn: 503-294-7657; scottlearn@news.oregonian.com

©2007 The Oregonian